April Maze
About April Maze
Felix the Cat takes his nephews Inky and Winky to the park for a picnic. A rabbit has a snake steal the meal while they say grace. Rain drives them home. They try again, and the food is stolen once more. Felix cannot catch the thief. A stork arrives with a basket. Felix opens it hoping for the lunch and finds more kittens.
Cast & crew
More about April Maze
Otto Messmer directed the Felix short for Pat Sullivan. Inky and Winky had first appeared in Felix the Cat Weathers the Weather (1926), not in this film. A third nephew, Dinky, shows up when the cartoons use three kittens.
Themes
Reviews
John Canemaker, in Felix: The Twisted Tale of the World's Most Famous Cat, uses April Maze as the example of Messmer's problem: a sound cartoon made by post-sync, with a long floral opening that plays like a Silly Symphony overture.
Music
The short was finished with post-synchronized sound rather than sound recorded to the picture.
Notes
- The opening has a butterfly on flowers and flowers that clap, which John Canemaker compares with a Silly Symphony.
- Canemaker writes that Messmer was stuck with post-sync sound while trying to compete with Disney.
- In 1950s comics the nephews are sometimes Inky and Dinky. The Inky-and-Winky pair became the usual one later.
Scenes
- A snake takes the picnic while they say grace.
- Felix opens the stork's basket and more kittens jump out.